31.10.15

Manuela Kulpa is a German photographer who photographs
animals in captivity across zoos . Through her photographs she wants to show
the beauty, richness and importance of our environment and how it is vital to
preserve it. In her latest series entitled “African Souls” Kulpa attempts
to capture the soul and beauty of African wildlife.

24.10.15

You don’t know anyone at the party, so you don’t want to go. You don’t
like cottage cheese, so you haven’t eaten it in years. This is your choice, of
course, but don’t kid yourself: it’s also the flinch. Your personality is not
set in stone. You may think a morning coffee is the most enjoyable thing in the
world, but it’s really just a habit. Thirty days without it, and you would be
fine. You think you have a soul mate, but in fact you could have had any number
of spouses. You would have evolved differently, but been just as happy.

You can change what you want
about yourself at any time. You see yourself as someone who can’t write or play
an instrument, who gives in to temptation or makes bad decisions, but that’s
really not you. It’s not ingrained. It’s not your personality. Your personality
is something else, something deeper than just preferences, and these details on
the surface, you can change anytime you like.

If it is useful to do so, you
must abandon your identity and start again. Sometimes, it’s the only way. Set
fire to your old self. It’s not needed here. It’s too busy shopping, gossiping
about others, and watching days go by and asking why you haven’t gotten as far
as you’d like. This old self will die and be forgotten by all but family, and
replaced by someone who makes a difference.

Your new self is not like
that. Your new self is the Great Chicago Fire—overwhelming, overpowering, and
destroying everything that isn’t necessary.

10.10.15

Presentation is part of a dish's appeal, and the menu is part of the
presentation. This makes the English translation of food descriptions
important; if I see an item described as “human” chicken, I'm not going to
order it no matter how delicious it is.

3. Nanoparticles are weird and I accidentally made
a bomb and electrocuted myself.-M33

4. People trying meditation for the first time get
aroused.- PainMatrix

5. When I get rid of this gene, it messes the
brain up. A lot.- NeuroscienceNerd

6. Computer AI systems can learn to operate a warp
drive and automatically build an instructional system to train people how to do
it. My dissertation is probably the only one in existence to reference the Star
Trek technical manual.- DrBiometrics

7. My experimental drug does NOT cure addiction.- NotSoCleverPork

8. Making new magnets from old magnets because
we're running out of magnets.- IAmAHiggsBoson

9. Inpatients with schizophrenia are happier and
socialize more in the context of a music listening group. It was obvious before
we began the project and we learned nothing.- Wouldyestap

11. There are amoebas living in volcanos, but I
never captured Bigfoot on film (I tried).- RNAPII

12. We can take random pieces of bacterial DNA
from beaver poop and put them into other bacteria to discover new things, like
how to break wood down into biofuels. Yes, I had to dissect dead beavers and
handle their poop.- Geneius

13. This protein looks like it might contribute to
asthma. Oh, turns out it probably doesn't.- Bear_Ear_Fritters

14. I crunch numbers using a supercomputer in the
hopes of ensuring a fusion reactor in France doesn't get fried on the inside.- PhysicsFornicator

15. Two proteins touch each other in a specific
place in the developing heart. No idea if it's important for anything.- Penguinpaige

16. I can make models of galaxies in a computer,
but I can't explain why they don't act like real ones. Even if I bash them
together or stir them around.- McMillan_Astro

17. People sometimes think about animals as if
they're people. People like those animals a little more than regular animals.
Except when they don't. I can't believe they gave me a PhD.- too_many_mangos

18. Sand washes away, don't build important stuff
on it- Zoidy

19. Why does a coffee stain looks the way it is,
and how you can use it to make anti-laser glasses.- Stockholm-Syndrom

20. You can make antimatter move in strange ways
if you set your equipment up wrong.- DrTBag

2.10.15

It's winter 1987/88, and I'm living with my first (English) wife in Greece. In February I get a telegram (those were the days) from Germany, my father had fallen ill with lung cancer. So I go back to Germany while my wife stays in Greece.

I was brought up in the Ruhrvalley, an industrial area relatively close to the Belgium border. So you wouldn't expect any tourists there. However, on the day I arrived I went with a good friend to a pub. We sat down at the bar, and a couple of minutes later this English lady from London sits down right next to me.

We obviously start to chat, and after about 5 minutes she suddenly says "I've got to read your cards!"

She gets a pack of cards from the bartender, does some things with them, and then says: "There is somebody seriously ill in your family, and I see you marrying a rich woman."

Remember, I had just met her, so she couldn't possibly know about my father. And I told her that I was already married. She simply insisted that this was what the cards told her.

Little did I know at the time that my wife was getting ready to leave me, so a couple of weeks later I was single again. Still shell-shocked, I start to hitchhike through Europe.

I arrive in Vienna one early morning in May. I book into a youth hostel, it's six o'clock in the morning, and this guy from Jugoslavia starts a conversation with me.

After a couple of minutes he says "I've got to read your horoscope!" He simple needed my date of birth, did some calculations, then said: "There is somebody seriously ill in your family, and I see you marrying a rich woman."